SCREENED AT THE 2007 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL: Anna Faris, such an adorable presence who clearly doesn’t realize she’s funny, kicks back with a vengeance after a couple of those Scary Movie pictures with “Happy Face”, Greg Araki’s new picture which stars Faris as a complete and utter pothead named other than Jane. And that’s about it.

Well, not so much actually. You see, Jane’s not having such a good day. She needs weed and her roommate needs her to pay the utility bill. And she has her eye on her roommate’s forbidden cupcakes. And when she does eat them, she decides to use that utility money to make more weed cupcakes from her fake-hairdo dealer (Adam Brody). What follows is one very interesting day as she eventually winds up on a ferris wheel. But how she got there was the real adventure…

As I said before, I don’t think Anna Faris doesn’t realize her true comic potential. As Jane, she appears to be having so much fun playing this part and we believe her for every second of her stoned out madness. She’s so funny, hits every note right on the button and has such a joy in her performance that I’m shocked she isn’t in the big time yet. Oh, and she’s cuter as a blonde (and I’m a brunette guy!).

Throughout her adventures in the big city, Jane runs into many people, one in particular a man played by John Cho (The Harold of “Harold and Kumar”) who appears to get hit on by Jane, until the tables have turned. The timing of this moment is priceless and brought the house down at this year’s South by Southwest screening.

I haven’t always liked all of Gregg Araki’s films, but I can see an edgy filmmaker who is dearly eager to please. The best film of his in recent memory is “Mysterious Skin”, a film so powerful and unforgettable in its imagery with several select sequences that I can’t get out of my head.

“Smiley Face” is more light-hearted and fun in his earlier works, and I really admired all of the visual tricks used to put us in the mind of this truly whacked out character. Animation and inter-titles are used effectively here, and there’s an outstanding sequence where we think that Jane has it all together as she tells off a chef in a restaurant, and yet if we reverse the sequence, we can find out what she really said!

“Smiley Face” isn’t perfect and it wanders from time to time, but the film is a winner because of Ms. Faris’ work and Araki’s direction, and here’s hoping the film gets on the midnight circuit sooner than later.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2007 Sundance Film Festival For more in the 2007 Sundance Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2007 South By Southwest Film Festival For more in the 2007 South By Southwest Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2007 Toronto International Film Festival For more in the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival series, click here.

User Comments

6/23/12

Josie Cotton is a goddess

I may not see this again, but it's a fun little movie

1/08/09

Mercedes

the type of movie i'd watch when i'm really depressed and feeling bad about myself. :]